is believed by Blount and others to be genuine, and is at any rate of great antiquity.

"Edward le Confessor graunt a vn Raffe Peperking loffice de garder de son Forest de hundred de Chelmer and Daunceing in Com. Essex in taile come appiert p. Record in Lescheker escrie modo sequente, viz. :

Iche Edward King

Have yeuen of my Forest the keeping

Of the hundred of Chelmer and Dauncing
To Randolph Peperking, and to his Kynlyng,
With Hart and Hynde, Doe and Bucke,
Hare and Foxe, Cat and Brocke,
Wyldfowle with his flocke,

Partridge, Fezant Hen, and Fezant Cocke,
With greene and wilde stub and stocke

To keepen, and two yeomen by all their might,
Both by day and eke by night,

And hounds for to hould,

Good, swift and bould,

Foure Greyhounds, and sixe Ratches,

For Hare and Foxe, and wyld Cattes :
And therefore yche made him my booke
Witnesse the Bishop of Wolstone
And booke ylerned many one,
And Sweyne of Essex our brother,

And taken him many other,

And our steward Howelyn,

That besought me for him.

"Cel graunt iaye icy insert, per que poyes voyer le plaine meaning del graunt de Roy in cel temps, & auxi qux sont beastes de Forrest & de Warreyn," &c.

66

Quant al dit

VOL. I.

1 The Normans called him Ranulph Peverel.

2 A

graunt, ieo troue in libro William Camden de descripcion de Britaine." Fol. 340. Vide 1 H. 7.

The above alludes to Waltham Forest on the Lea, formerly known as the forest of Essex. In Camden's day it was, he says, a chace of vast extent, full of game, and containing the largest deer in the kingdom. In the Britannia,' greyhounds and ratches, are given greahounds and racches; but in Gough's edition grehouns. He refers as his authority to the Records of Hilary Term, 17 Ed. II., in the Exchequer.

Kemble informs us, in the Introduction to his Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici,' that the Saxon Kings quartered their huntsmen, horses, dogs, and hawks on their subjects. Kenulf, King of the Mercians, granted a charter in 821 to Abingdon monastery, which says, "We therefore command, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that no man who arrives inflated with pride, nor king, shall demand pasture, nor bringing men whom we call 'fæsting men,' nor those who carry hawks or falcons, or lead horses or dogs." 1

The Ancient Laws and Institutes of England" are not silent as to the dog. In those of Alfred we find :—

"OF TEARING BY A DOG.—If a dog tear or bite a man, for the first misdeed let vi shillings be paid; if he (the owner) give him food; for the second time, xii shillings; for the third, xxx shillings. If, after any of these misdeeds, the dog escape, let this bōt '3 nevertheless take place. If the dog do more misdeeds, and he keep him; let him make 'bōt,' accord

1 Dugdale's Mon. Ang.

2 B. Thorpe, 1840.

3 Compensation.

ing to the full wēr,' as well wound-bōt' as for whatever he may do."

Edgar enacted, "An oxe's bell, and a dog's collar, and a blast-horn, either of these three shall be worth a shilling, and each is reckoned an informer.” 2

Ethelred ordered that hunting, marketing, and worldly works should be abstained from on Sundays. Canute did likewise; and as to hunting, "And I will that every man be entitled to his hunting, in wood and in field, on his own possession. And let every one forego my hunting: take notice where I will have it untrespassed on, under penalty of the full wite." 3

This is said to be the oldest mention of Forest Laws in England.

Edgar's Canons say also, "Nor within the church-enclosure let there come any dog, nor yet more a swine, if it can be so ordered." Likewise, " And we enjoin, that a priest be not a hunter, nor a hawker, nor a dicer, but apply to his books, as becomes his order." The Penitentials of Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury, A.D. 688 to 690, and of Ecgberht Archbishop of York, A.D. 735 to 766, make mention of the clergy in regard to their pursuits of hunting and drinking.

Alcuin, writing to the monks of Wearmouth about the students, said, "Let the boys be accustomed to attend the praises of our heavenly King; not to dig up fox-earths, not

1 The price of a man killed. A fine for offences.

2 Perhaps because the collar had a bell attached.

3 Mulet; fine for violation of law.

to pursue the fleeting course of hares."

From this it would

seem that fox and hare hunting were then pursued, but that the fox, instead of being drawn for, was dug out and turned down.

In the interesting and recent work, entitled 'A History of Domestic Manners, &c., in England during the Middle Ages,' it is written, "The dogs (hundas) used for the chase among the Anglo-Saxon were valuable, and were bred with great care. Every noble or great land-owner had his hund-weath, or dog-keeper.". . . "They seem to have hunted in couples. The Anglo-Saxon name for a hunting-dog was ren-hund,2 a dog of chace, which is interpreted by greyhound." The author likewise asserts that a total dissimilarity exists between the dogs pictured in the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts and the British dogs represented in the Romano-British Pottery. Probably the Saxons and the Danes, and the Romans too, introduced breeds of their own. A swift hound, according to the Colloquy of Alfric,' was equal in value to a hawk.

William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regia, lib. i.

2 Ducange suggests it may mean running-hound, or coursing hound, and be derived from rennan, Saxon for run. He also says it is the same as ram-hund, the dog mentioned in the Forest Laws of Canute. The latter statement is not plausible, for it is in the highest degree improbable that running hounds were permitted within the forest bounds. The derivation taken from the Saxon Glossary published in the reign of Edward III. is equally unreasonable-viz., that it comes from ren, Saxon for rain; a dog that watches out of doors in the rain!"

A

CHAPTER XXXI.

MONG the Celts the dog was highly esteemed. Aneurin,

a Celtic poet of the sixth century, uses the word as an honourable designation. In his poem on the battle of Cattraeth, where his countrymen were defeated by the Saxons, and in which he, a North-British chieftain, bore part, he says, when deploring the loss of his companions,

‚“There escaped only three from the power of their swords,

Two War Dogs from Aeron and Cynon,

The first quotation may allude to the use once made of dogs in battle by the Cimbri and other nations, perhaps also by the Alani. The second may apply to a breed of wild dogs once existing in Britain.

The very curious Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, comprising those of Howel the Good, King of South Wales, enacted by him in the beginning of the tenth century at his Hunting Lodge in Caermarthenshire, and confirmed by the Pope, contain much interesting legislation as to hunting and the dog. Aneurin Owen, in his translation, states, that three Codes exist that of Venedotia or North Wales, Dimetia or